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Coverage
Student struggle and the hostile academic environment How we do it Welcoming practice Tackling positive thinking ESS 7: How to build your condence Bibliography and further reading
Introduction
It is impossible to overestimate the fear and lack of self-condence of students, especially that of non-traditional students. All the students with whom we work express their lack of faith in themselves in some form or other in that they are not clever enough, that they have no potential, that they are out of place, that they are impostors soon to be discovered generally that they are not good enough. These negative opinions are only reinforced by the way that the widening participation debate has been conducted in Britain in the early twenty-rst century. There is constant talk of lowering standards and dumbing down and Mickey Mouse students for whom Mickey Mouse degrees are quite appropriate. Margaret Hodge when Minister for Lifelong Learning (200203) underscored this with the reassurance that many of the new students would not be entering professions or industries requiring traditional degrees but would rather undertake vocational programmes (Hodge, 2002).
HE institutions can exacerbate student lack of self-esteem in the way that they implicitly view and explicitly treat their students. If lecturers do view the new students as a pollution of the ivory environment, this will very quickly communicate itself to the student and reinforce the negative self-perception already extant. Further, if the HE institution makes no attempt to bridge the gap between the student and the forms and practices of HE, or if the HE orientation bridge that the university builds is one that overtly or covertly denes the student as decit, where perhaps: Student language is made visible and problematised but the language of discourse and the pedagogical practices in which they are embedded . . . remain invisible, taken as given (Lillis, 2001: 22) this will help conrm a negative notion of the (non-traditional) student in both staff and students. In this chapter we explore the affective position of the student entering higher education, with a special focus on the thoughts and feelings of the non-traditional student. We move on to consider how we in learning development attempt to build student self-condence and promote self-esteem.
How we do it
Welcoming practice
As indicated above, we start this process by valuing the non-traditional student and the qualities that they do bring to the HE environment. We make our learning development space as friendly and welcoming as we can, for you cannot downplay the impact of a friendly face! We remember that while our students may have experienced the world in powerful ways before they have entered college or university, typically they will have had unsuccessful or traumatising previous educational experience. We work to demonstrate that we value our students, and attempt to help them to value the skills, aptitudes and experiences that they bring with them. We stress that there is no shame in not automatically knowing how to study, learn and communicate effectively but that these things can be learned. We stress how we really like working with such motivated and keen students.
him- or herself or the one that is loping along thinking that they cant possibly win? When looking at sport it is obvious that the mind can have a strong impact on how the body will perform we argue that this is also true for academic study. We illustrate how low self-esteem has force in education, not least because it can lead to stress and the release of the stress hormones cortisol and adrenalin (see also Chapter 10 on presentations) which reduce short-term memory and bring about the tunnel vision and focus necessary for safety but which is counter-productive in education. For example, if a building is burning, you do not want to stop and wonder from whence the re originated and whether or not there is an arsonist at work you just need to ee the building. However, in academic study the from whence and I wonder if questions are essential.
Activity tip
Utilise an illustrative activity (Jeffers, 1987): ask for a volunteer and get them to extend their stronger arm. Tell the student that they must think negative thoughts such as I am a failure and I am weak as they resist you pushing down their arm. Typically the arm is very easy to push down. Now try again, but this time the student must think, I am powerful and I am strong. Typically the second time it really is more difcult to push down the students arm.
2000, Inter-subjectivity and Contemporary Social Theory. Aldershot/Avebury a really useful book by the way!). Here are some responses gathered from our students (see ESS, pp. 1467): I got really angry! Why on earth do they have to write like that? Its stupid. This is strange and scary, but its where Ive got to get to. I read it several times to try to make sense of it. I used my dictionary of literary terms and tried to make sense of it piece by piece. It made me feel like giving up, its obvious that Im not welcome here. Well I just laughed and laughed. Theyve got to be joking havent they? Ask students: What did you make of the different reactions to that sentence? Were you surprised? What effect will this have on you? Potential discussion: It can help to reassure students about their personal responses to the sentence. Negative responses typically reveal how uncondent the student is feeling, but this situation can change. Further, remind them that as there are different responses recorded from the group, no one response is inevitable, it has been learned. Students can work to learn a different response to academic language and situations.
We are frightened of many things. We are frightened of ageing, disease and death, typically we are all frightened of change, of the new. Change makes us uncomfortable and it is not just major change that discomforts. Students are often frightened of entering the library, of reading an academic text, of giving that rst presentation. We can be frightened of anything and everything, and while fear may be perfectly natural and normal, it can make life especially student life really difcult. For while there might be some things in life that you can choose to avoid you really do not have to bungee jump if you are frightened of heights the majority of things that we fear as students do have to be engaged with.
this negative self-perception can be extremely inhibiting preventing us from undertaking challenges or embracing risk. Even economists have a say in this area the non-stop pushing of pensions and insurance policies implies that there are ways of eliminating risk and making the world a totally safe and controllable space. But to be human is to constantly move into unfamiliar territory, to embrace risk. The more we focus on avoiding risk the more we are dehumanising ourselves. And the more we listen to our fears, the more we will focus on our inadequacies and the less we are likely to do. This can be especially negative for the student who has so many new things to face, so many new challenges to embrace. If these changes are only viewed as problems and opportunities to fail then it becomes even more difcult to positively embrace education. This has a further consequence when studying if we consider the role of mistakes in the learning process. The learning environment may also play a part in the fear factor. Human beings do learn by trial and error. If the learning environment feels over-threatening, the student will not want to make mistakes and open themselves up to criticism: they may give up rather than reveal their mistakes to hostile scrutiny. The lesson we can learn as academics is to make the learning environment a safe one for all our students: a space for trial and error, for learning from mistakes and we must reassure students that we have done so. The students have to realise that they will get things wrong quite often but if they work to learn from these experiences they will learn more.
Reframing fear
Kipling said that the only thing to fear was fear itself. We argue that fear is unavoidable what we can change is our response to fear. Here are some new ways to look at fear see if they help (you and) your students. Fear is good: Fear is a wonderful indicator that we are doing new things, moving into new areas and undertaking new challenges. In this way fear is a good thing, it means that we are still growing, we are still alive. Arguably, if we are not experiencing some element of fear it means that we are stagnating we are dying inside. Try to see
fear as an indicator of growth and welcome it celebrate the fact that life still holds opportunity for you. Fear affects everyone: One problem for students is that they tend to think that everyone else is OK, that they are the only ones feeling frightened and looking foolish. Obviously this is not true: if Cohen is to be believed, everyone feels fear when embracing the new. Sometimes just realising that everyone else is also frightened can take the stigma out of our fear. Instead of a fear response proving once and for all that we are either inadequate or a coward we can relax in the realisation that it just means that we are as human as everybody else. The only way to get rid of the fear of something is to do it quickly: Most people know this cliche to be true. The only way to overcome a fear is to do that which we fear and the quicker the better. Students can spend months worrying about that presentation and then it is over in ve minutes. The months of worry have just served to make the task harder. Its easier to face fear than to live with fear: It really is easier to deal with fear rather than to live with it. Every time we allow fear to prevent us from undertaking something it is as if we are conspiring against ourselves to make the world a worse place. So if engaging in something that you fear, tell yourself you have actually chosen the easier option. It takes practice: Reframing fear in the ways detailed above may not come naturally to your students. However, they will nd that with practice they will be able to face fear differently, and this will help them embrace the challenges of being a student.
their professor thinks of them as a Mickey Mouse student . . . but there will be something that they can do to improve their own chances within the situation in which they nd themselves if they get used to thinking of themselves as in charge of: their decisions their actions their state of mind the amount of effort that they put in getting work in on time getting good grades . . . etc. If those things matter, students can take steps to make them happen. Of course we as academics can facilitate this by making our forms, processes and criteria clear. We can operate successful and empowering induction and HE orientation programmes, we can scaffold student learning in our seminars and we can operate and work with learning development facilities.
Tip: Remind students that each choice they make to do or not to do something will have a price attached. This is another part of being human, our choices have prices it is best to accept this joyfully and move on. Each of these vocabulary shifts is easy to mock but they all embrace a shift in consciousness that will help the student face academic life more positively. Obviously no one can make people shift their perspective but if the student does want to change, practising using this different language will make a difference.
Positive friends
One thing that may occur for the changing student is that they will encounter derision or resistance from peers and family members. Young students may nd that they do not enjoy people viewing them as a swot and that a studious mien is neither buff nor cool. Older students may nd that when inputting effort into their studies they will be expecting family members to help more with chores this does not always meet with approval. Young and old students may nd that they no longer have time for everybody elses woes and they will not always be at the end of a telephone or ready to stop everything for a chat. If the student wants to retain contact with friends and family throughout their time as a student they will have to negotiate this change as diplomatically as possible. It is not usually a good thing just to confront everyone around you with the new, positive, in-your-face and selfinterested person! Gently does it. Further, it may be useful for students to start making new, positive friends to help them maintain their positive outlook and their energy levels. Negative people drain energy positive people can excite and stimulate. Encourage students to make positive study partners and to form a positive study group. When encouraging group work in students yourself, you might let them choose their own groups so that they can work with people with whom they feel compatible suggest that when making this choice they choose someone as positive and motivated as themselves that is suitably ambiguous.
Afrmations
Typically we nd that this is the topic with which the average academic has the most difculty. Afrmations are short positive statements that students can use to overcome stress, to build their self-condence and to generally help themselves. The initial idea behind the afrmation is to drown out the internalised negative voice that we have grown up with. The youll be sorry youre too old, too stupid, too fat, too lumpen . . . voice that lives in the heart,
head and ear of many of us and the majority of our students. This voice has to be replaced with a positive one of which the most basic is the I can handle it (Jeffers, 1987). If students say I can handle it whenever they face a difcult situation or when they feel a wave of insecurity or self-doubt ood over them, they will calm down and be able to face things. From the basic I can cope statement, students can move on to develop their own set of afrmations, ones that address the other functions of the afrmation, to energise and boost the self-condence of the individual. Remind students that afrmations should always be in the present tense and always in the positive, the present tense so that the goal of the afrmation becomes rooted in the now rather than remaining distant and unobtainable, in the positive to emphasise that which is desired rather than that which is being left behind. For example, it would be I am brave rather than I will not be afraid. It is useful if people write out their afrmations and stick them up around their homes so that the rst thing they see in the morning could be its a great day. When brushing their teeth it could be I am wonderful and so forth. If encouraging students to use this technique do warn them that it is one that requires maintenance. People nd that they use this technique, feel great, decide they dont need it anymore and sink back into negative thinking and behaviour. Remind them that they will have had many, many years of practising their bad habits they need to give the new, positive ones the same chance. Tip: As a light-hearted follow-up to a session like this, ask students to bring in their afrmations to share and discuss with the group. Of course students will have to put in the academic work and effort as well they cannot just sit condently chanting afrmations in a corner and expect an essay to write itself. But thinking positively about their ability to write that essay can lead them to discover the steps that need to be taken to research and write an essay and they may be able to give themselves the time that they need to do the work required. Thus a better essay will be written.
Conclusion
When concluding this session with your students as well as the reiteration of the lecture as a whole: We have looked at fear and the effect that this has on the student, we have considered from where fear has arisen and some things that we can do to overcome our fears . . . do reassure them that if they are currently feeling more frightened all that power and responsibility can be quite intimidating they just need to feel the fear and do it anyway.
Also: If you deliver a lecture based on the above with conviction and enthusiasm, do not be surprised if you get a round of applause! Students really do enjoy this one.
Practising it
When using learning logs with your students do stress the value of the reaction section (see also Chapter 14 on reective practice). Honest personal reactions (especially when not penalised by the tutor) can help students discover aspects of the education process that affect them positively or negatively. Have a session where students bring in afrmations to share with the seminar group risk sharing some of your own.
Extension
Arguably all the activities that you use with students to help them become more aware of the forms and processes of education will extend their self-condence.
Overall conclusion
In this chapter we have considered the factors that tend to promote a lack of self-condence and self-esteem in the non-traditional student. We have argued that academia has an affective as well as an effective dimension and that it is important to point this out to students and to acknowledge it for ourselves. Finally we looked at how we cover this topic in learning development, typically in a lecture on positive thinking looking at self-esteem and fear, and what we can do to overcome fear and build self-condence. We do hope that you have found this an interesting chapter and that you nd it easy to use this lecture with your students.
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